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This was a welcome return to Messums, Wiltshire, the stunning setting of the largest Tythe barn in Europe, and the rural wing of one of the country’s leading British art galleries. Johnny Messum kindly invited us back to host some of the finest glassblowers demonstrating their skills, as a finale to their 2019 Glass Festival. What an absolute delight to have such a setting to showcase the fine art of glassblowing. The line-up was set, tickets were sold, and thanks to the seamless organisation from Messums and Minimelt Glass, everything was in order, kit ready.

This year the two main exhibitors at Messums Glass Show “Material Light : Glass” were the legendary Dante Marioni from Seattle, and our own home grown Elliot Walker. Their shows opened in December and brought the subject of glass art to Wiltshire, exquisitely presented in the two Messums barns. Joining them were Scott Benefield from USA/Northern Ireland, Katie Huskie from Devereux Huskie Glassworks, and Dave Barry from Bristol Blue Glass.

What a fantastic, inspiring and creative week we had with master glass artists Louis Thompson and Anthony Scala on our ‘Hot Start, Cold Finish’ masterclass.

This course was developed from the bold concept of merging hot and cold glassmaking processes, inviting two of the best from each process to steer the ship. Participants arrived from as far as Australia for this course, armed with an open mind and anticipation for the five days ahead. Following an inspirational introduction by the tutors, students were given a roll of paper to fill with their creative ideas and to use as a diary over the coming week and selected some coloured blown cylinders to work with.

Messums is a spectacular new fine art gallery in Tisbury, Wiltshire, showcasing fine art, and more recently, crafts. On 28th Jan 2018, The Glass Hub packed up their mobile studio to take part in the event “Glass Festival: Alchemy in Art”. This was a unique opportunity to showcase not only beautiful glass artworks and fine craftsmanship, but also the physical process …live in the gallery!

The concept of the day, evolved from simple participatory glass bauble blowing into a unique display of live master glassblowing demonstrations for the public to watch. The talented line-up consisted of: Dave Barry, James Devereux (featuring Cathryn Shilling), Katie Huskie, Elliot Walker and then a surprise guest from overseas – Dante Marioni.

Scott Benefield and Andrea Spencer arrived from Belfast on a Sunday night and were whisked through the high hedges and darkness to Stowford farm where they would spend the next week teaching at The Glass Hub.

Day 1.
The following morning Scott introduced our group of six keen students to the types of glass cane they were going to be pulling over the week. The first day – simple “veiled” cane. Colours were chosen, cut and heated up in the top loaders, ready to be picked up. The ladders were laid out, doors closed for draughts and Scott demonstrated a few hot and perfect pulls. Then it was our students’ turn. The speed, accuracy and single-handed style of Scott is both unique and authentically a Murano style. This was certainly challenging for the group, but the day ended with bundles of coloured canes ready for day two.

Join us this winter for some hot glass action. There are only a handful of spaces left on our One-Day glassblowing classes and Bauble Blowing and Festive Fusing is booking up fast. If you’re feeling more adventurous and want to thoroughly immerse yourself in glass our Winter School is a fabulous option for an unforgettable experience.

We are really looking forward to sharing another five days with glass artist Scott Benefield as he guides us through the wonderful world of cane. Scott will be sharing his expertise at the Glass Hub over the five-day masterclass, ‘Introduction to Venetian Cane Techniques’ (16 – 20 October 2017). We have two places left so why not come and learn all about this exciting process from a real master.

Scott is a multi-award winning artist, educator and writer and past president of the Glass Art Society (US). He has been a Fellow at the Creative Glass Center of America and an artist-in-residence at the National College of Art & Design (Ireland), North Lands Creative Glass (UK), Vrij Glas (Netherlands), Pittsburgh Glass Center, the Corning Museum of Glass and the Tacoma Museum of Glass (US). His writing about studio glass has been published in numerous publications, including Glass Quarterly and the Glass Art Society Journal.

He is a master of Italian cane techniques and has taught cane workshops at the Penland School of Crafts, the Pilchuck Glass School, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, the National College of Art and Design (Ireland), the Glass Furnace (Turkey) and as a visiting scholar at Osaka University of the Arts in 2009.

We are thrilled that Scott Benefield, who will be teaching with us this Autumn, has chaired the jury at this year’s prestigious British Glass Biennale. The jury have selected the pieces that will comprise the Biennale, an exhibition central to the International Festival of Glass, held every other year at the Ruskin Mill in Stourbridge. The 2017 exhibition, curated by Matt Durran, features work by 63 contemporary artists and will open to the public on August 25th. http://www.biennale.org.uk/.

Scott is a multi-award winning artist, educator and writer and past president of the Glass Art Society (US). He has been a Fellow at the Creative Glass Center of America and an artist-in-residence at the National College of Art & Design (Ireland), North Lands Creative Glass (UK), Vrij Glas (Netherlands), Pittsburgh Glass Center, the Corning Museum of Glass and the Tacoma Museum of Glass (US). His writing about studio glass has been published in numerous publications, including Glass Quarterly and the Glass Art Society Journal.

He is a master of Italian cane techniques and has taught cane workshops at the Penland School of Crafts, the Pilchuck Glass School, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, the National College of Art and Design (Ireland), the Glass Furnace (Turkey) and as a visiting scholar at Osaka University of the Arts in 2009.

The Glass Hub welcomed Joseph Harrington once again for a rather special masterclass – ‘The Freedom of the One-Off’. Joe has had a busy time recently – being represented by Bullseye Projects at Collect in February, chosen as Maker of the Week by the Crafts Council shortly afterwards, and then having a piece acquired by the V&A Museum for their Glass Gallery. So we were extremely excited to have Joe here to show students the techniques and methodology involved in his beautiful geologically inspired kiln cast pieces…..

We will soon be welcoming the talented master glass artist Lisa Pettibone back to The Glass Hub. Lisa returns this November to share her extensive knowledge of sculptural glass slumping.

After years of slumping glass, both kiln cast and fused pieces, she has discovered new ways to express form and volume that has occupied her artistic and technical thoughts for ten years or more. This involves careful temperature control and planning, allowing glass to fall into, onto and through objects in the kiln as well as making props and moulds. Letting shapes fall naturally with props can achieve a range of shapes, but we may extend this and actually go inside the kiln to manipulate hot glass too.

Lisa is unique in her approach to glass. Gravity, energy and tension are at the core of her work, and the results are beautiful, stretching glass, techniques and the imagination. We have a couple of places left on this brilliant 3-day workshop if you want to join Lisa and take your glassmaking to the next level.

What a blast! We have just come to the end of another brilliant Summer School here at The Glass Hub …our seventh in fact. On Monday we welcomed in our lovely group of eight students, five of whom are back for the second, third and even fourth time and on Friday we waved goodbye to eight lovely friends. The week really did fly by with not a moment wasted. this was our Summer School Extra for students who have some experience so we tried lots of interesting techniques. At the Glass Hub we run a hot glass studio alongside our warm glass studio so we are uniquely placed to practice techniques involving both hot and warm glass.

Among other glass explorations we made murrine by stacking sheet glass and tack fusing it. Then we took the fused glass into the hot shop and pulled into murine canes, and chopped up with our murine chopper into small slices. These elements were then re-incorporated back into fused work, with unique and striking results – – a fascinating insight into an ancient technique.

Students and glass alike were put through their paces and stretched, moulded and tweaked in so many ways. We also practiced glassblowing, reactive fusing, sandcasting, drop outs, kiln casting and much more. After so much work the glass gang managed some time to chill together …in the pub for a drink and a meal; at the campsite next to the river and at the Manor with a delicious cream tea. On Thursday evening while watching the talented James Devereux and Katie Huskie’s master demonstration we enjoyed a proper feast of a barbecue cooked up by the marvellous and invaluable Karen, with amazing puddings from our foundation student Sarah. Thank you everyone so much for making it such fantastic and exhausting fun. Have a look at some of the photos…